For once the fruit, tree and specifically the fig leaf haven't come to cover up the male member...

But try as she might there's no disguising that your hostess has a fully furnished past.

Bold, brash, bawdy, busty and lusty - she's a shrill scream in the right kind of bad company.

Just don't ever, ever think of taking her home to meet mother.

***

No fruit symbolises female fecundity more forcefully than the fig. Whilst the leaf of that same tree is the very image of the visual emasculation of the male.

How appropriate then that Thierry Mugler's latest solitary punchline scent should bear the name 'Womanity'.

To describe this as a straightforward smell would be to over complicate things. It is bell peelingly high-pitched and pathetically honeyed fig on top of euphemistic 'caviar'.

It is the perfume of a perversely imagined pun on the pudenda.

What could have been truly controversial and confrontational in more courageous hands is turned into to saccharine vaudeville gag, a semi-skimmed single entendre that just isn't funny, no matter how many times it's told.

On a man? Absurd.

But, actually, that might be preferable to the effect on the female of the species.

You drift away. To a past where everything is not so fresh, and scrubbed and anti-septicated. Your nostalgia forgets for a moment that the soot from sentimental chimney stacks settled on lungs and stung the eyes of children.

'Everything will be environmentally sustainable'

The scent turns seamless vanilla as all dirt and rough edges perform a vanishing act worthy of a Grand Vizier's court conjuror.

'Everything with be ecologically sound'

And you long for steam trains and Ottoman toilets, oakmoss and stale flowers.

***

If there is anymore eloquent an expression of the elegant, etiolated 'exotic' fragrances of today than Prada Amber, I have yet to find it.

This highly engineered, well thought out exercise in perfume politics achieves exactly what it aims to, and precisely no more.

It is a swift, clean scent generating machine that gathers in the consumers' cash by offering up a series of pop-formulaic chords - amber and patchouli - with a slight Levantine baseline - vanilla, benzoin - that is 'bound to please the crowd'.

For all its symmetry and design-led precision it is ultimately an act of conceptual cynicism cooked up by big corporate interests.

I prefer perfume created by artists to the essence of economists.

- - - Updated - - -

Following the division caused by my previous views on a synthetic pseudo-oriental, I'd like to bring some true love into the equation with the real deal, the delightfully improper:

Yves Saint Laurent Nu

Is this the New Religion?

If so I'm on the very cusp of being converted.

A work of worship, it starts in an ante chamber with an Eastern rite of purification: an almost overwhelming and unexpected crescendo of cardamon.

In ecstasy the assembled are encouraged to give up residual resentments, forgo bitterness with a sweetness bought by bergamot rubbed briefly across your brow by way of blessing.

Progressing to the main hall of the temple you find the central act of adoration perpetually in motion.

True incense, that is frankincense, oil of olibanum, is caressed across the nape of your neck by a true believer.

Others of his brethren throw precious petals persistently into the air. Arms like widmills in snow storms of the imagination, they create constant flurries out of jasmine and orchid clouds.

So commences the final act of consummation.

Recalling Roman ritual, that spice they valued most and which the contemporary world has made mere condiment, is wholly and wholeheartedly invoked.

Rich imperial pepper.

Of strange quality and quantities un-experienced for centuries it stimulates and eroticises the whole holy throng.

It's intoxication invigorates incandescent adherents onwards to the climax of their idolatry.

Collective carnal embrace.

In the room beyond, you attempt to gather in your dignity and thoughts; foraging through feelings and folds of skin for meaning.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Thank you for your impressions, Assiduosity. I really enjoy reading them & look forward to your take on Jungle l'Elephant and Samsara.

I'm voting for Amouage Jubilation next.

Thanks teardrop and diamondflame for your comments - please bear with me if sometimes the outcome of voting seems a little off beam - that's because there are a number of different sources for votes and historic votes count etc etc .

Needless to say that it's all above board and every vote really does count so thank you and everyone for sticking with it.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Due to on-going technical difficulties (is anyone else having problems posting at the moment) This is delayed from last night...

It's just after 2200hrs, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

Tomorrow, Saturday 26th January, after the closest vote in a long time, I'll be wearing....

Givenchy Givenchy III

What will I wear next on Monday 28th January? Choose from the following 10:

Estée Lauder Aliage

Elizabeth Arden Green Tea

Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge

Robert Piguet Fracas

Dior Miss Dior

Clinique Aromatics Elixir

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Anthology La Roue de La Fortune 10

Amouage Jubilation for Women

Estée Lauder Sensuous

Or the, totally coincidental, newcomer...

Prada Infusion d'Iris

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

This being the weekend everyone gets two votes!!

You have just under 48hours... starting now.

The next review will be along shortly.

- - - Updated - - -

Hello All

It's that weekend thing again.

When I started this thread last November I really had no idea of the response it would elicit.

To date I've had just short of 500 suggestions.

That means a little over 5% of all the fragrances in the basenotes database are, in your collective view, marketed at women, but just as good for men to wear.

In a spirit of sharing the joy, and in response to a clutch of requests by personal message, at weekends I'm running through 20 of the recommendations in the order you suggested them.

These don't include any that have already made the top 10, or won the poll - you can find them in the thread above.

I hope the roll call will inspire you to try some of your fellow basenoters' favourites, bring forward fresh suggestions for new must try fragrances and encourage you to support scents that have been put forward but haven't quite made it onto the top 10 list yet.

Remember the more recommendations a scent gets the more likely it is to make the top 10.

Two fragrances that featured last weekend are now top ten hits.

So here goes.

In order of appearance (part 3):

Bath and Body Works Sensual Amber

Versace Crystal Noir

The Body Shop Midnight Bakula

Aquolina Gold Sugar

Antonio Banderas Her Secret

Azzaro Azzura

Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds

Britney Spears Believe

Clean Clean Shower Fresh

Cristobal Balenciaga Balenciaga L`Essence

Davidoff Cool Water

Pierre Balmain Jolie Madame

Lanvin Oxygene

Pierre Cardin Choc de Cardin

Crabtree & Evelyn Iris

Tauer Perfumes 06 Incense Rose

Etat Libre d`Orange Rossy de Palma Eau de Protection

Halle Berry Closer

Dior J`adore

Comme des Garcons Comme des Garcons White

Here's to a great smelling week.

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It's well after midnight, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

Today Monday 29th January, after a weekend that has shaken everything up, I'll be wearing....

Clinique Aromatics Elixir

What will I wear tomorrow Tuesday 29th January? Choose from the following 10:

Estée Lauder Aliage

Elizabeth Arden Green Tea

Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge

Robert Piguet Fracas

Dior Miss Dior

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Anthology La Roue de La Fortune 10

Amouage Jubilation for Women

Estée Lauder Sensuous

Prada Infusion d'Iris

Or the, totally coincidental, newcomer...

Paco Rabanne La Nuit

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

You have just under 24 hours... starting now.

The next review will be with you Monday morning to help you start your week fragrantly.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

Not sure if it counts as wholly feminine, but I would happily wear SL's Fleurs d'Oranger anywhere you'd let me. It's very very floral - orange flower, jasmine, tuberose but with a dirty base. In spite of the base, I'd still class it as happy juice, but with a bit of a knowing wink. I think this is what makes it work for men, though it may raise the odd eyebrow.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by ExtremeK

I generally ignore marketing as to "feminine" vs "masculine" vs "unisex" scents. I like what I like, and what I like, I wear, regardless of how it's marketed. As one of the guys who regularly posts on the women's SotD thread says, fragrances don't have genitalia.

That said, someone's personal *preference* may lean towards more historically (or stereotypically) "masculine" or "feminine" scent associations. So for me, it ends up not being about bucking marketing or the associations of others but bucking my own preferences and predilictions and stepping out of my comfort zone to challenge myself with new things. I'll try anything once, including, btw, M7 and Kouros. I don't care for M7 because I'm not an oud fan, not because it's masculine. I actually really enjoy Kouros even though it's not part of my typical fragrance profile.

Personally, I think the Lutens catalog is mostly unisex, and I believe I've read that Lutens himself considers his entire line to be unisex.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think what you're doing is great, and I like encouraging everyone to break out of the boxes that marketers like to put us in and just try as many different fragrances as you can. And if you like something, wear it, regardless of what others might think.

My boyfriend wears a wide range fragrances, including many "masculine" Montales (e.g., Patchouli Leaves, Oud Cuir d'Arabie, Blue Amber) and Sonoma Scent Studio offerings (e.g., Fireside Intense, Incense Pure, and Tabac Aurea) because he loves patchouli, ouds, ambers, and smoky fragrances. But he also loves Malle's Geranium Pour Monsieur and the original Perry Ellis (not the new "Original" Perry Ellis), and he doesn't shy away from florals. And when he wears the florals, oh my goodness, my knees go weak. His go-to florals are Montale Black Aoud (roses + oud), Malle Portrait of a Lady (rose + patchouli), and by far the absolute most sexy thing on him is Malle Iris Poudre. Utterly incredible. SSS Voile de Violette is also amazing on him.

And there are lots of guys who post on the women's side who routinely wear Chanel No. 5. I'm not an aldehydes fan, so it does nothing for me. And a few also wear Carnal Flower, which I think would be incredible on the man who likes it and chooses to carry it off as his own.

There's something very, very sexy about iconclasts, and busting through people's expectations. So don't let others' expectations narrow your experimentation. If you're going to do this, do it all the way.

We are where we are and our culture has assigned gender labels to a lot of things in ways that may seem arbitrary. This means that, as well as "liking what we like", we also have the opportunity to play with the existing preconceptions, to get a kick out of the transgression. It's hard to say precisely why people enjoy crossing the gender lines - what proportion there is in the mix of genuine innocence and unprejudiced personal preference as opposed to perversity (I don't mean this in a judgemental way, but in the sense of taking a perverse pleasure in crossing the lines).

I think, while Serge Lutens (as in my recommendation above), and other perfumers, professes unisex, they're actually often deliberately playing with categories in a knowing, and deliberately sexy, way.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

For LP Hartley...

Dior Dune

Teenagers are creatures from another country.

They wander around trying everything new though little impresses them at all.

Children in grown up garb they find pleasure where they will, not where they are commanded to. They are lanky two year olds on Christmas morning preferring wrapping paper and cardboard boxes to the hard-sought treats they contain.

And this one? She has made me a teenager again. Transported me to an Atlantic coast of France at some indeterminate point in my youth.

We will travel today to the greatest sand banks in Europe. At Arcachon I will be impressed by sun silvered expanses of silicone, three kilometres long, half kilometre deep, one hundred metres high that consume the coastline at five metres a year.

I will be impressed.

En route to the shore that played host to Dumas and so seduced Sartre that he glimpsed existential expanses there, we stop to refill our Renault.

I pay for the fuel and with strange change in Francs procure five small glass bottles of fizzy orange. As they are handed over I look quizzically at the cashier - insouciant in bikini, open boys' shirt and espadrilles - she is a year or two older than me but decades more mature. I am to embarrassed to ask why the liquid is golden and not the pithy technicolor fruit skin shade I am used to.

In the over-heated voiture, against parental advice, I open my bottle of this curious beverage. It fizzes but does not overflow as though it would be unrefined to do so, I taste it and it tastes sharp and truly of orange and has pieces of actual fruit floating in it.

To my teenage taste buds it is the very taste of sophistication.

I quaff another draft and the aldheydic carbonated fruit is every bit as fine and adult. I am drinking in the nectar of grown ups. One slug more and it is gone, out of reach once again.

The Pilat, as it is called, is an incredible structure, engineered by nature. It cannot fail to impress.

Yet this is precisely what it does, it fails to impress anything of its salty amber air, anything of the soft wood forest: dark and mossy along it's inland shore, anything of the sweet occasional flowers that brave the brisk winds onto my memory.

Even the occasional tourists wandering past with alpine peaks of soft vanilla ice cream surmounted with resinous toffee and caramel sauces are absent from my recollection.

My teenage mind, as selective with it's remembrances as its enthusiasms has room only for real orange soda.

***

Dune is a perfume undone rather than raised high by an immense opening.

Its incomparably effervescent commencement of bergamot and mandarin shot through with sparkling aldehydes casts a long shadow over the remainder of the proceedings.

The fragrance that lurks in the darkness is a respectable, well made (though perhaps not as fully rounded as it once was) and conventionally sophisticated scent composed chiefly of amber and wood sweetened by benzoin and some subtle florals for interest.

This would make a great steady date if it hadn't promised to be a beauty queen in the personals.

Can a man wear it? Oh yes.

Would I wear it? Oh no.

Not because it isn't good: it is. But because I wouldn't want to carry around the inevitable disappointment after the wonderful bitter orange soda pop ran dry so quickly every time.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a little before 2300 hours, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 30th January, a new look classic in the most faithful version money can currently buy, I'll be wearing....

Dior Miss Dior

What will I wear Wednesday 31st January? Choose from the following 10:

Estée Lauder Aliage

Elizabeth Arden Green Tea

Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge

Robert Piguet Fracas

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Anthology La Roue de La Fortune 10

Amouage Jubilation for Women

Estée Lauder Sensuous

Prada Infusion d'Iris

Paco Rabanne La Nuit

Or the newcomer...

Dior Dior Addict

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

You have just under 24 hours... starting now.

The next review will be with you shortly.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a little before 2300 hours, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

If there is any fracture in her composure it is merely momentary illusion, she huffs to herbaceous borders simply to hasten patchouli plants into perfume and achieve perfection for a paying clientele.

The meal ends with a peach desert as peerless as the the operatic dame soprano herself.

Our lady of the knives acknowledges her audience: on her kitchen stage she curtsies clutching her bouquet of glistening sharp edges.

***

Diorella is no chef d'oeuvre to be be trifled with.

An exacting, precise, cerebral perfume it is not a work but an embodiment of art.

It takes the basic chypre recipe and deploying Occam's razor removes any fat, skims off excess and leaves only clean muscle and salient seasoning.

A list of ingredients reads as unremarkable: lemon, oakmoss, basil, bergamot, a melodius melon, some greens and sprig or two of patchouli.

Each is of the highest quality, but it is the genius of their deployment and not the hauter of their demeanor that gives the dish as served its unrivaled effect.

There is no man or woman in a kitchen, merely the one in charge in whites.

Diorella is Chef.

***

Note

This review is of the last Diorella not to be branded within 'Les creations de Monsieur Dior'.

The modern re-imagining is much better than many concealed reformulations. However, it cannot be denied that a sunshine Sicilian lemon casts too much light on the proceedings, subtracting rather than adding to the whole with its out-of-step cheeriness.

Likewise a little more looseness in the hand dispensing the oakmoss analogue might have delivered a more robust affair.

That said, it still remains, even under a deed-pole name, a masterly chypre, without many peers who can match it.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a little before 0130 hours, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

Re: What female scents are even deadlier on the male?

After a difficult day of cajoling our star has arrived... but where's the leading man? Who will play opposite...

Dior Miss Dior

She arrived in Hollywood already with an acid tongue and a smile like sucking lemons.

She didn't suffer fools gladly or otherwise.

For she knew she had it in her to make herself a star.

They said she came straight off the boat with a belly full of mossy bitterness.

Who wouldn't? She'd done the casting couch in Europe and had at first to look on, green as envious galbanum, while other girls got the better parts over her.

Her: who had played Christian martyrs and vestal virgins in some of the biggest movies that had ever been.

Her: who's steely glamour and sexuality on ice had rocked a continent.

So she had a past! What of it? She'd washed that chemically clean in aldehydic soap in London: lost her Mademoiselle along, conveniently enough, with her memories of Parisian perversity and her Berlin bob cut not blonde hair.

That's all history now: gone up in hydrogen peroxide now.

And she's ready now, for the first screen test close up of a thousand big screen close ups of a career she knows will last for years, for decades even.

They may have her flowery while on sound stage, a Continental bouquet of iris, rose, jasmine and carnation: all swoons and ballgowns.

But its the narcissi that sing most from her heart.

Its the leather gloves she pulls on like a women who can drive fast and throw punches hard that gives a clue to her mind.

The gritty patchouli oil she stabs at her neck that speaks from her damaged soul.

She's a beauty, but she ain't pretty.

She's a star and she's a bitch and she knows it.

***

Miss Dior is anything but polite.

In her best formulations she is an as sharp as a card shark turned killer perfume, throwing punches like an against the wall gangster in a Golden Age Gown by Head photographed by Horst.

She is the collision of glamour and catastrophe.

A few smacks across the face by a green oakmoss hand in an aldehyde dry-cleaned leather glove goes by way of introduction.

If she then feigns to mellow into iris and rose and hints at sandalwood softness in her heart, beware.

Beware, for this is another of her Oscar-wining transformations, soon enough dirty patchouli, salty amber and wild grass will be back to give you a friction burn of a dry, dry down.

Despite her femme nomenclature. This early doors Bonnie Parker is butch enough to be sure.

A woman should wear it if only she's as happy wearing a holster. And a guy, well he just as to be good with it.

Hell, if anyone calls him, she's been in enough western's: Miss Dior will be by his side for the shoot out.

- - - Updated - - -

It's a little after midnight, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

Today, Friday 1st February, a long term stalwart of the top 10, I'll be wearing....

Estée Lauder Aliage

What will I wear Saturday 2nd February? Choose from the following 10:

Elizabeth Arden Green Tea

Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Anthology La Roue de La Fortune 10

Estée Lauder Sensuous

Prada Infusion d'Iris

Paco Rabanne La Nuit

Dior Dior Addict

Estée Lauder Knowing

Gucci Gucci by Gucci

Or the newcomer... as if by chance...

Dior Dioressence

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

You have just under 24 hours... starting now.

The next review will be with you shortly.

- - - Updated - - -

If like me you've not been able to access Basenotes much over the last day or so, you won't have had a chance to cast your ballot; however, folks elsewhere have been busy...

It's a little after one in the morning, London. The lines are closed. Voting is over.

Today, Saturday 2nd February, after a day of sharp practice and sorry pleas at the polls, I'll be wearing....

Prada Infusion d'Iris

What will I wear Monday 4th February? Choose from the following 10:

Elizabeth Arden Green Tea

Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au The Rouge

Dolce&Gabbana D&G Anthology La Roue de La Fortune 10

Estée Lauder Sensuous

Paco Rabanne La Nuit

Dior Dior Addict

Estée Lauder Knowing

Gucci Gucci by Gucci

Dior Dioressence

Or the newcomer... as if by chance... again...

Dior Diorissimo

Remember all previous votes count towards a fragrance's running total and every participant gets a new vote every day!

So that means two votes each as it's the weekend!!

You have just under 48 hours... starting now.

Due to the ructions caused by our star struck star lovers, the next review is a little way off.